Thursday, March 16, 2017

Charlie Conacher Unpublished 1931/32 Photo

Charlie Conacher in Action

Well, this is pretty cool. Recently I have been helping out a friend go through old hockey photos for his store vintagesportsimages.com . I am assisting in categorizing, curating and identifying literally 1000's of images that predominantly come from the collection of the Boston Globe. He owns the original negatives, and most of them have not ever been published. I think I found a doozy here. Above is a game-play shot of Maple Leaf great Charlie Conacher that I'm fairly sure has not ever been put online.

Below are the main two iconic images of Conacher, both staged in a photo shoot. The one in Vintage Sports Images collection is cropped from a far larger image, attached at the bottom, that gives more info about it.

The photo is definitely from an actual game, against the Detroit Falcons. The Falcons were known as such for only two seasons, 1930/31 and 1931/32 before being re-branded the Red Wings. Coancher's teammate to the right of the image is wearing number 3. In 30/31 Art Duncan wore that number, the following year it was Alex Levinsky. A quick look at the sihrhockey.org photo database, and I can safely say this #3 is Levinsky, making the photo from the 1931/32 season.

The Leaf in the foreground appears to be wearing #11 which would make that Conacher's linemate Busher Jackson. As well, the goalie peaking in from the right side definitely looks like Leaf goalie of the time, Lorne Chabot.

Charlie Conacher was in his third NHL season in 1931/32 and his 34 goals would lead the NHL for the second straight year. This was also the first year of Maple Leaf Gardens and Toronto went on to win the Stanley Cup over New York Rangers.